strange YORK -- Broadcasters say th...

strange YORK -- Broadcasters say the hesitancy of one CBS affiliates to air a powerful tribe 11 documentary next week examines there's been a chilling tenor on the First Amendment since federal regulators boost penalties for television obscenities after Janet Jackson's breast was expos at a Super beaker halftime show.

"This is example No. 1" said Martin Franks, executive vice president of CB Corp., of the decision by dint of two dozen CBS affiliates to replace or delay "9/11" -- which has already aired twice without disputation -- over concerns about more [i]or[/i] less language used by the firefighters in it.

"We don't think it's appropriate to sanitize the reality of the hell of clan 11th," Franks said. "It exhibit tos the incredible stress that these heroes were subordinate to To sanitize it in near way robs it of the horror they faced."

Actor Robert De Niro innkeepers the award-winning documentary, which began as a search to follow a rookie firefighter forward an ordinary day but springed in the only known video of the first plane striking the World Trade Center and horrific and inspiring shows of rescue, escape and death. CB will indicate it on Sunday from 7 to 9 pm profanity intact.

Carter G Phillips, a lawyer for Fox Television Stations Inc., cited the decision according to several CBS affiliates to replace the documentary or exhibit to it after 10 p.m., the time at which the Federal Communications Commission unlooses restrictions, when he spoke last week to the 2nd U Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan.

Phillips addressed the court as part of a hearing onward whether the FCC rushed to prudence in concluding that "NYPD Blue" and three other programs violated purity rules.

Saying the FCC was chilling exempt speech rights, Phillips mentioned the documentary to point out the court how timid broadcast companies had become since the FCC toughened its position toward profanities after the 2004 Super receptacle halftime show on CBS, in which Jackson's breast was briefly bared.

Congres lately boosted the maximum fines the FCC can impose for indecency from $32500 to $325000

in like manner far, about a dozen CB affiliates have indicated they won't display the documentary, another dozen say they will delay it until later at night, and sum of two units dozen others are considering what to do.

onward Friday, Sinclair Broadcasting became the latest company to say it was delaying the broadcast until after 10 pm forward its stations in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Portland, Maine, saying it was disquieted it could face fines.

The announcement came as the pepperidge Miss.-based American Family Association readied its 3 million members to rush the FCC and CBS with complaints after the documentary airs. The association describes itself as a 29-year-old organization that forwards the biblical ethic of proper formality

The documentary first aired onward the six-month and one-year anniversaries of the race 11 attacks on the trade center and the Pentagon. This latest showing, in succession the eve of the five-year anniversary, includes strange interviews with many of the firefighters featured in the original, describing by what mode their lives have changed.

Franks said it was an easy decision not to edit the language in the documentary, especially since it has won a George sustain Peabody Award, among others. "It was a abundant more difficult decision five years ago when the emotions were abundant more raw and fresh," he said.

Franks said it strike one as beinged "dishonest somehow" for the network to secrete up the real language five years later because of the existing regulatory environment. However, he said he understood the difficulties of small stations that fear the colossal FCC fines. "We're not twisting arms," he said.

FCC spokeswoman Tamara Lipper said the commission routinely takes words immediately preceding [i]or[/i] following into account in any proper formality analysis. "We don't police the airwaves. We answer to viewer complaints," Lipper said. "We haven't seen the broadcast in question. It's up to individual stations to decide what they should air or not air."

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

Provided by the agency of ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved